The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee voted last week in favor of creating a task force to study
and regulate virtual currencies such as bitcoin with the aim of
preventing their use by money launderers and terrorist groups.
Also, the European Central Bank has begun experimenting with "distributed
ledger technology," the platform underpinning the bitcoin digital
currency, an official said Monday, cautioning that the technology’s
“far-reaching” ramifications require more investigation.
Further, Bitstamp
announced that Luxembourg has granted it a payment institution license,
making the company the first nationally licensed Bitcoin exchange in
the world. With the European Union’s “passport” that allows financial services providers legally established in one member state to operate in others, Bitstamp, the third-largest Bitcoin exchange,
will also be able to operate across all 28 European Union countries. The
license starts operativity on July 1, from Luxembourg
Background article here; and here